It Doesn't Have to End This Way
by tiny.sakura
Summary: In an effort to stop the war from happening, Sakura goes back in time to stop Sasuke's deflection to protect her village and loved ones. With her memory barely intact, Sakura has to find the way to save everyone with only the guidance of visions of the future and a voice she can only hear when it forces itself out. Eventual GaaSaku/Sakura Centric.
1. Well

**Summary: In an effort to stop the war from happening, Sakura goes back in time to stop Sasuke's deflection to protect her village and loved ones. With her memory barely intact, Sakura has to find the way to save everyone with only the guidance of visions of the future and a voice she can only hear when it forces itself out. Eventual GaaSaku/Sakura Centric.**

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Sakura bolted upright screaming. All those people were dead... Most of those people she didn't even know... she had only recognized one person in the midst of all the death, and that person looked strangely like herself... but older?

The young Haruno's parents came rushing into the room of their only child and quickly flicked the lights on. Mebuki Haruno sat on Sakura's bed and hugged the four-year-old with all the strength she could muster. This was the fifth night in a row that he poor daughter had woken up from a nightmare. She had screamed unknown things in her sleep that neither Mebuki or Kizashi could figure out.

The first night had felt like a heart attack. She had never had a nightmare like that before, at least not one where she had awoken her parents by screaming her head off. Mebuki remembered the discussion she had with the neighbors the next morning, chiding their precious daughter for disturbing their beauty sleep. As if they could get any prettier than the ugly hags that they were.

Whenever Sakura awoke from those dreams she trembled in her mother's arms and spoke unknown words, almost as if she were trying to convince herself that they were not real and no one was going to hurt her. The Harunos were deeply troubled that their daughter dreamed of death and had made a small pact between themselves to not let her join the academy the following year. If this were what her dreams consisted of now then they would only worsen over her career as a ninja. Kizashi had once entertained the thought of his daughter becoming the strongest ninja of her time. But now? He wanted nothing more than for her to stay within the village walls, where it was safe.

"Sakura, honey?"

Sakura nodded slowly, letting herself remember that it was just a dream and that no one was out to hurt her. She was safe and was going to become a ninja to stay safe. Although, it was highly ironic to become a ninja to _be_ safe, as they were constantly in dangerous situations. But her parents had never gotten hurt before so it seemed pretty safe considering the odds. Her parents were genin and had never advanced and Sakura decided that she wouldn't either. She would be just like her parents, although their personalities seemed pretty suffocating... so maybe not completely like her parents.

"Water," Sakura mumbled out, her voice was rough and dry, probably from the screaming. Her nightmares had been getting worse and worse. It was frightening to put it lightly, the four-year-old knew that her life wasn't on the line like those in her dream but something about it seemed so real, it was scary.

Mebuki looked at her husband sadly, knowing that they were going to have to mention these dreams to someone eventually but it felt terrible to admit that they needed help raising their own daughter. The Haruno parents had seen the dangers of what being a ninja could do, they had seen the Kyuubi attack up close and personal. Kizashi has lost part of his leg in the war, although they made sure to never let Sakura know of that fact in fear that she might lose them if they ever went on another mission. The pair quit being active ninjas that night and had opened their own bakery, something they were both very fond of. In another life, that would have been their sole profession, but again, that was in another life. There is only the here and now. And 'the now' seemed like a perfect place to start talking to Sakura about her night terrors.

XOXOXO

The rest of the night had been uneventful, thank the heavens above, but now that it was morning The Haruno parents set out to find someone to talk to. Sakura had been dropped off at the Yamanaka clan's residence to spend time with her best friend, Ino Yamanaka. The two were practically inseparable since the young blonde girl had come to Sakura's rescue about a year ago.

Ino had found Sakura picking at flowers in the middle of the grassy area of the park and was hesitant to talk to her. However, the moment she saw three girls surround the poor pink haired child, Sakura began to shake in fear, she had met these bullies before but she could get away then. With the three of them surrounding her, there was no way out.

Something clicked in Ino's mind that made her charge at the group of intimidating girls and told them to stop picking on the other girl or else. One of the bullies, Ami, had noticed the blond's peculiar eyes and gulped loudly, understanding that they were about to bully a clan kid. Ami and her two friends ditched the area and left the park altogether. When Sakura's bright green eyes peeked up to look at the girl standing up for her, she was worried that this new girl would bully her as well. Her lip started to quiver in fear.

It had taken Ino one minute to introduce herself, two minutes to get Sakura to introduce herself, and three minutes to convince the smaller girl that she was not going to hurt her. After those six minutes, the rest was history. No one dared to pick on Sakura Haruno again and she, in turn, would be forever grateful to have someone like Ino by her side.

Ino and Sakura walked hand-in-hand to the park as they always did on Wednesday mornings. They came to the park together three times a week and usually stayed for four hours at a time. The two were definitely a sight to see. The blonde was confident, brave, and strong-willed. The pinkette? She was quiet, reserved, and careful of her manners. She never wanted to step on anyone's toes and would be very cautious of her body placement, lest she finds herself with bullies again.

And so, this Wednesday morning, Ino and Sakura had found themselves back in the park. They began to play catch after their first hour was spent picking flowers with Ino teaching Sakura the different flowers' names and meanings, they separated themselves further and further, both confident in their own catching and throwing skills.

Ino had the ball and was ready to throw again and called out to Sakura who was looking at her feet instead of keeping her eyes on the ball. "Sakura, catch!" Ino called out loudly.

She tossed the blue ball as hard as she could but Sakura was too short to catch the ball as it flew over her head. "I'll get it!" called out the slightly more timid voice as Sakura ducked into a bush in search of the ball. She smiled triumphantly to herself as she found the ball in less than fifteen seconds of looking. She was getting pretty good at finding things since she had lost all her toys at one point and had to find them all and put them back where they belonged.

Sakura carefully placed her foot on a branch of the bush that would keep her balanced and steady and bent down to get said blue ball to continue the girls' game. The branch gave away with a 'snap' and launched the small child off balance and face first onto the other side of the devil bush. A frustrated sigh came out from the fallen pinkette when she found herself on the floor.

She was now on her back looking towards the sky and began to notice a rainbow start to form. It was rather odd, a rainbow in the sky without it raining? Was it raining somewhere else in the village? Maybe somewhere slightly outside of her beloved village? Without putting much thought into it Sakura began to look towards the ball that was within her reach on her right side. Slowly standing up, Sakura began to feel a soft aching in her head, signaling that she had hit the ground with her head at some point of the fall.

The young girl dusted off the dirt that accumulated on her red shirt in a small attempt to hide that fact that she fell in the first place. She picked up the ball and looked back towards where Ino had been standing. Her gaze wasn't directed towards her best friend, though. It was towards some boy walking the length of the park with his mother in one hand and a taller boy in his other. Sakura had never seen her best friend stare so intensely at someone since she had known her. And if she did, it was certainly not towards some boy.

Sakura raced over towards Ino to get a better look at the trio walking together in the park. They did look rather pretty, Sakura admitted to herself. The woman had long black hair tied into a low ponytail and the taller boy had hair similar to her. The younger boy's hair wasn't long at all and made his face look a little more round than it probably was. Sakura couldn't understand why Ino, as well as some other girls, were staring at them. They were just ordinary people, with weird fans on the backs of their clothes.

Wait... Those fans looked familiar as if young Sakura had seen them before. They were now walking towards her when something overtook Sakura with fear. She had no idea where the sensation of fear was coming from but it left her slightly trembling. The four-year-old had never felt this way before, it seemed as if she knew the two boys and they were going to hurt her. She took a small step back, eyes wide open to make sure that they didn't escape their view.

As her breathing faltered along with her strength to stand, she saw the young boy look over in her direction. Their eyes made contact when she heard a soft voice command her, "run, Sakura." There was no hesitation when the pink haired child dropped the ball and ran in an alternate direction the trio were heading. She did not know who the voice was or why she felt the way she did, but her gut was telling her that something was going to happen and she didn't want to be around to see what it was.

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 **Hey guys! This is my rewrite of the story The Change and I've decided to make it a completely separate story from the original and even give it a new story form. So here we go! There will be a few chapters as the tiny Sakura we all loved and then I'll start to time skip in order to get through the story a little more quickly and to get to the parts that will completely alter the canon-verse we all knew. Hope you guys like it!**

 **Love,**

 **Tiny.**


	2. Are you me?

**Summary: In an effort to stop the war from happening, Sakura goes back in time to stop Sasuke's deflection to protect her village and loved ones. With her memory barely intact, Sakura has to find the way to save everyone with only the guidance of visions of the future and a voice she can only hear when it forces itself out. Eventual GaaSaku/Sakura Centric.**

* * *

Tears spilled out of the four-year-old's eyes as she ran as fast as her legs could take her. Why did this sudden urge come over her to run? The voice sounded so familiar... but who would tell her to run like that? Sakura didn't think that little boy was going to kill her, but something about him just sent chills down her spine. Was it the voice that spoke to her? Was it something that she never noticed?

And that voice... Had someone been behind her? Was she being followed? A pout began to form on the small pinkette's face as she was running. Almost out of breath, Sakura turned into an alleyway she had always used a shortcut to her own house. Her mother always told her to be careful of all alleyways when it was night time but it was bright and sunny and in the middle of the day! There was nothing that was going to hurt her here!

Almost as if it were sheer bad luck or an almighty act of the devil the four-year-old crashed into a group of boys who were forming a tight circle. Sakura fell back onto her bottom and shakily propped herself up on her elbows slowly. Her head felt like it was going to explode from the ringing in her ears. The boys began to surround her with anger clearly written on their faces.

"Who is this pinky?" one of the boys taunted. He was at least a whole head taller with brown scruffy hair and green eyes. His clothes suggested that he was on his way home from the academy as did the other four of the group.

"I don't know Niko but she just interrupted our play time with the monster over there," another boy stepped closer towards the small girl. His frown deepened with anger when he saw that Sakura wasn't running away.

But how could Sakura move? She was being surrounded and still on the floor, she was too frozen to even shake with fear. True, they didn't seem as frightening as the other little boy, but they had anger in their eyes. The raven-haired boy from the park had a smile on! How could he have looked scarier?

"Hey! Leave her alone!" a little blond boy called from the outside of the group. He pointed an accusatory finger towards the boys who were just beating him up.

They had been surrounding him before, Sakura noticed. "Protect him," whispered the same voice. He must have been the person they were calling a monster. How rude! All five boys were looking over towards the blond boy again, he was taking tiny steps backward and shaking. He was scared and he had saved Sakura's life! Oh, this would not do.

While the brunette gang of older boys began making their way over towards the blond boy something came over Sakura like the voice had done before. No longer in fear for her own safety, Sakura stood up and tapped on one of the boy's shoulders. His name was Niko if she recalled correctly.

"What do you want, you little-" he began to turn around and was about to grab ahold of Sakura's red shirt when she punched him as hard as she could square in the jaw. The boy flew back 5 feet and crashed into a pile cardboard boxes outside a shop back door. The rest of the gang gasped in shock, and Sakura took the opportunity to run as fast and as far as she could after she grasped onto the blond boy's wrist and ran until they were well out of the alleyway.

The pair stopped behind a rather large bush and were heaving heavily to catch their breath. The blond boy stared at the little pink haired child with both astonishment and fear as he had never had someone stand up for him before. True, he tried to get them away from her, but she didn't have to go back for him! She didn't have to do anything for him, she didn't know him.

'She just doesn't know the truth,' he thought. He looked at her curiously as he had managed to breathe normally for the past few seconds but she was still bent over, probably still catching her breath. "Uhm…" his voice came out smaller than he had intended it to. Naruto didn't want to scare the girl, after all. "A-are you-?"

"H-help…" her soft voice cut him off.

He may be loud as heck but his ears were quite sensitive to others' voices. He bent down and tried to get a look at her face, as her hair was covering most of it. That's when he noticed the red. "Blood!" he screamed, he winced a little bit at his volume, now being aware that she was not used to shouting at her. "Are you okay?" his tone of voice much softer this time around, he was surely not going to scare away the girl who protected him.

It was almost as if time stood still for little Sakura. She could hear the little blond boy talk to her, asking her if she was alright but... when everything went black, that's when she knew she was in trouble.

XOXOXO

 _"Hello?" Sakura called out. Everything, everywhere, it was all... dark. Sakura was a tiny ball of sunshine and she always had been, so it wasn't just every day that she was surrounded by darkness. In fact, she was actually quite scared of the dark if we were being honest. But this was a different kind of darkness that she couldn't ever get used to. "I-Is anyone the-there?"_

 _Tears began to form in small green eyes before she noticed something in the far off distance. Someone was there with her, equally scared, from what she could tell. The person was looking around at her surroundings as well. The first thing that young Sakura had noticed was rose red hair about the length of her whole body. The person stood up on shaky legs and held her arms close to her chest and looked around at her surroundings._

 _Seafoam eyes widened slightly when they caught Sakura staring up at her with wide eyes. Tears began to well in the eyes of the taller figure. She began to slowly walk over towards the small pink haired child and broke into a run and engulfed the small body in a tight hug. "Y-you're here..." she whispered in a soft and raspy voice._

 _"You're pretty," whispered Sakura in response to the older girl's sudden realization. Sakura felt compelled to hug her back and wrapped her small arms around the taller girl._

 _The rose red-haired girl sniffled and let out a small laugh, seemingly relieved at Sakura's comment. "I missed you so much..." she whispered._

 _"Who are you?" Sakura dared to ask. The girl seemed happy to see her so she must have known her from somewhere. But wouldn't have Sakura remembered someone as beautiful as this girl? "Where do I know you from?"_

 _The older girl suddenly pulled away from the younger girl and held her at an arm's length away. "Y-You don't know me?" tears began to form in her pretty eyes again._

 _Sakura used her thumb to get rid of a tear that managed to slip out of the girl's eyes. "No," Sakura said sadly, she didn't want her to cry again but she honestly had no idea. "But I want to get to know you!" She prayed that that would cheer her up. Sakura didn't like it when people cried._

 _A small, sad smile formed on the mystery girl's lips. She struggled to give an answer with hesitation that made Sakura question if she actually knew her, "My name is..." she bit her lip with hesitation, "not important." She had made a decision and spoke with finality._

 _"Then what should I call you?" Sakura asked curiously. This girl knew her but wouldn't give her her name? "Can I... Can I call you Nii-san?" she asked in a quiet voice._

 _The tall girl looked at her if she had grown three eyes and blinked quickly. "Uhh..." she hesitated again. "I don't see why not." It felt like an odd sensation being called "Nii-san" by someone who was definitely not her little sibling._

 _"Okay, Nii-san!" Sakura returned to her bubbly self and smiled to herself, feeling amazing that she gained a new friend. It wasn't every day that such a small child who was probably the shyest person in the world made a new friend._

 _Nii-san chuckled lightly and ruffled Sakura's hair, remembering that her mother had done it to her multiple times whenever she said something silly when she was younger. "Ne, Hime-chan, how old are you?"_

 _Sakura looked up at Nii-san with eyes shining like they never had before, "Did you just call me 'Hime-chan?' That's what my daddy calls me!"_

 _"Really?" Nii-san looked at her with curiosity. This was definitely not the Sakura she had known previously. The Sakura she had known and loved with her whole heart hated being called 'Hime-chan' with every fiber of her being. It was actually refreshing to hear this Sakura look at her with such an innocent spark in her eyes. It made her bubble with emotion and miss her life more than anything._

 _"But..." Sakura trailed off with uncertainty. "Why are we here?" she asked innocently. To be honest, she had no idea where 'here' was either, but at least she had company._

 _"A forbidden jutsu trapped me here," Nii-san whispered with regret laced in between her words. "Something went wrong when it was being performed and I lost you and woke up here..."_

 _"Are you looking for me?" Sakura wondered. She wasn't talking about herself, particularly, but the Sakura that Nii-san was looking for._

 _"Yeah," she responded sadly. "I can see things through your eyes, and I think my version of you can too." Nii-san had to choose her next words carefully, "some things are already changing about what had happened in my world..." She dared to explain further, "in my world, you weren't that nice to Naruto and you were in love with a boy when you entered the academy."_

 _"Academy?" Sakura looked at with awe, so Nii-san was a ninja? "I always wanted to be a ninja," Sakura recounted thoughtfully. "I don't think I'll be good though," she confessed. "People say that the only good ninjas come from clans that have lots of ninjas already. My mommy is a ninja but my daddy isn't. He makes really good cupcakes, so that's okay if he isn't a ninja," the small girl rambled on._

 _"You're actually an amazing, ninja, Hime-chan," confessed Nii-san. "But you have a lot of work to do if you want to become a good one. And I would be very very happy if you became a good ninja again."_

 _"Again?" Sakura looked at Nii-san in the eyes, trying to understand where she was coming from. She wasn't a ninja yet, so how could she become one again?_

 _Nii-san looked into her emerald green eyes with her own seafoam ones. She forgot this Sakura was only four with her fifth birthday coming up soon. Nii-san remembered Konoha's rule that children had to be at least 6 to enter the academy. She could count on one hand the number of times that rule was broken by the time she had taken time to learn about Konoha's history._

 _"Nii-san?" Sakura asked quietly._

 _"Yes, Hime-chan?"_

 _"Are you me?"_

 _Nii-san laughed full heartedly."No, Hime-chan. I'm not."_

 _Shit. This would be a long and hard road ahead of her. It wasn't every day that a little girl talks to people from the future, and Sakura was definitely going to be an exception._

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 **Hello again, my loves! I literally am living for all your love and support. I finally have time to set aside specifically for writing and I feels so good. Seriously! I'm trying to keep track of my poetry writing as well, so if you want to check that out that'll be much appreciated too. (same name on Instagram, FYI)**

 **I only post chapters where I already have an outline for the following one and it's already 1/4 written, so updates happen on a decent basis, unlike before where everything was updated randomly with 5 months in between. So here's a fresh chapter for you all! Please leave reviews and love because I only write when I feel love so it's hard to me to pick it up when I feel like I'm doing terribly. ):**

 **Much love as always!**

 **xoxo**

 **Tiny**


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